1. Field of Technology
This invention involves the medical plant Piper laetispicum C.DC., and is specifically about the method for preparing Piper laetispicum C.DC. extract, the extract prepared and obtained by making use of the method, and the application of the extract.
2. Background Technology
Diseases related to the metabolism of monoamine transmitters such as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA) and dopamine (DA) are currently one of the primary kinds of diseases that affect human health, and as indicated by WHO data, the total burden of such diseases thus incurred is second only to coronary artery disease in developed countries, while neuropsychopathy is ranked as first among the total burdens of diseases in China, which is approximately ⅕ of the total burdens of diseases. For example, many communities and medical researches have revealed that depression and anxiety disorders both have relatively high incidence rates, and a survey of syndromes throughout the entire United States indicates that 17.3% of ordinary people have encountered depression onset and 24.5% of people have experienced anxiety disorders at a certain period of time in their lives, and all these researches consistently indicate in most cases that many people will face the problems of depressive disorders or anxiety disorders in the future. For some special groups of people, such as disabled people, chronic physical disease patients, drug abusers, those who depend on alcohol and celibatarians, their incidence rate and morbidity rate are even higher for diseases related to the metabolism of monoamine transmitters such as 5-hydroxytryptamine, noradrenaline and dopamine, and with the increasing aging of the population, the incidence rate of mental diseases for senior people will become increasingly higher, and senile dementia, depressive disorder and/or anxiety disorder are the most prominent ones among them.
Such diseases, which have a high incidence rate and which are difficult to eradicate, have created a huge market for 5-hydroxytryptamine and/or noradrenaline and/or dopamine (re) uptake inhibitors.
The application of Piper laetispicum C.DC. is rarely recorded, and only “Flora of China” and “Chinese Herbal Medicines” (2000 edition) have carried limited descriptions from the perspective of botany. The record in “Chinese Herbal Medicines” is: “The drug material is warm in nature, has acrid flavor, is used to promote blood flow, alleviate swelling and stop pain, is indicated for the treatment of injury, blood clot, swelling and pain, and should be decocted for oral administration or infused in wine . . . .”
Through years of research work and experiments, the inventor has found out that its extracts have outstanding anti-depression activity, and some biological activities for resisting anxiety, relieving pain and calming.
Before this, the inventor was already involved in two applications for China invention patents, and the first patent application (application number 00119452.6) disclosed the application of Piper laetispicum C.DC. and its extracts in preparing drug combinations; the second patent application (application number 03115911.7) disclosed a method for preparing Piper laetispicum C.DC. extracts by using its active components, and the extracts prepared and obtained by using this method can be used to treat and prevent depressive disorder or other affective disorders.
However, in subsequent research work, it has been discovered that the reflux method previously used in the extraction process involves complicated procedures and a longer period of time due to the need for operations such as heating, filtering and concentration, and is therefore more difficult to implement; what is more important is that the reflux method causes greater damage to the active components in the extracts, which results in poor pharmacological activity and safety of the extracts, and improvement is therefore necessary.